Peppermint Tea
by mint repeat
Summary: Because you can always make new traditions. Ron/Hermione. Set during OoTP.


**Peppermint Tea.**

/

The first thing he does when he comes down for dinner is look for her and not whether the lovely kitchen elves have made Shepherd's pie foe today's dinner. Okay, he does look for that too but he also looks for her simultaneously. It's a ritual for him. See after lunch, he never see's Hermione until dinner time. And today he's even more anxious than usual to see her. Because he hasn't seen her all day and without her he kind of feels lost and stupid and generally feels like there's something integral in him missing. So he looks for his pie and he looks for her too.

Eagerly.

How does he multitask you ask?

His eyes look for the pie and his nose quivers in anticipation of her scent of sunshine and cherries to hit him like a breath of fresh air. Today he's looking for the pie and his nose is searching for her but nothing hits him. He looks around in panic and he can't even see her sitting next to him, eyeing him with horror for shoveling his face with food. He quickly racks his brains and tries to look back on what he may have done to annoy her. It can't have been too bad that she had to spend the entire day avoiding him, can it?

Normally there a billion things and sometimes he thinks he annoys her just by existing but today his mind draws a complete blank. He's been extremely good to her for the past one week and he hasn't even made one idiotic remark that usually ends in her storming off in a huff and him blinking in surprise, not knowing what he has done. Usually Harry points out later on, snickering very unhelpfully but today there's no cause for her to be annoyed and not here. He hasn't done anything at all.

He turns to Harry, who in turn is making goo eyes at Cho Chang and he sighs into his sausages. Harry may as well be a dribbling monkey and Ron knows for sure, there is not much sense to be got out of him now, not when he's staring at Cho Chang like she's the only person in the Hall. He looks around and notices Parvati and Lavender sitting with their heads bowed and briefly ponders asking them. When their heads rise and he see's them giggling, he thinks the better of it. They'll obviously insinuate something and he'll turn beet reed and won't be able to talk properly and then there will tons of awkwardness around Hermione and then they'll fight and he'll be miserable and mope. So yeah, its better he finds out on his own where Hermione is.

He hastily throws some bacon and eggs between a few slices of bread- even though he's not sure why they are on the dinner table in the first place, picks up two flasks of pumpkin juice and leaves the Great Hall for the Gryffindor common room. Just because she isn't here doesn't mean she doesn't want dinner right? Because the idea of anyone not eating dinner is simply inconceivable to him.

/

He enters the common room and is about to make a beeline for one of the titchy first year girls when he notices someone slumped over the couch. He notices a quantity of bushy hair and immediately he zooms in on Hermione. He sets the food on a small tea-table near by and kneels down next to her.

"Hermione?" he whispers softly, feeling a bit panicky. Is she okay? Is she alright?

Hermione lifts her head up and slowly straightens her bent self. Her face is wan and pale and she looks tired while her mouth is contorted in a grimace of pain. Is she sick he wonders? Maybe she needs an Astrin or Astrid or whatever those little Muggle white pills are called.

He wants to ask if she's okay but the question feels kind of redundant so he doesn't ask that.

"What's wrong?" And that sounds much better and much more intelligent.

Hermione winces as she moves and shakes her head. "Nothing."

He stands up and sits next to her on the couch. "Really, nothing?" He's unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice because it's clearly evident she does not look okay.

"It's something you wouldn't understand," she mumbles, leaning back on her couch with her hand pressed over her stomach and biting hard on her lip. And suddenly it comes to him in a flash. He's seen Ginny like this, looking pale and pinched and tired. There's only one answer for it.

"Stomach cramps," he says knowledgeably. Her eyes fly open in surprise and she stares at him.

"How did you know?" she asks awkwardly and then she smiles as they both say it out loud. "Ginny."

Normally this should be an awkward topic for him because boys and girly stuff don't go well together but when your sister or your best friend is hunched over and in excruciating pain, this isn't the time to be squeamish.

He first discovered Ginny, contorted in a ball of pain when she was thirteen and he was fourteen. He would have gone and called his mom or something like that but there were tears coursing down her face and because she was his little sister and he was supposed to be keeping her from pain he sat at her side and stroked her hair until the tears receded into occasional hiccups. And then not knowing what else to do because her face was still contorted in pain, he made her a cup of Peppermint tea.

That soothed her and ever since that day whenever Ginny had cramps or even just a bad day, she'd come to him and he'd make her Peppermint tea. It had become a tradition of sorts, warm and soothing and sweet.

And maybe, he can make it a new tradition too.

/

"Hold on a minute, I'll be right back," he says racing away before he realizes that in her current state, she must not even want to move anywhere, even if she did have to go somewhere. It's annoying when he tries so hard to be _that _guy and then fails simply by opening his mouth again. Sometimes he thinks, there is no hope for him. He destined to be one of those guys who constantly shove their feet into their mouth and would require something medicinal in order to get it out of there permanently.

He rifles in his trunk and fishes out a pack of tea bags which he got from the apothecary near home. He takes out his old mug, mutters a charm for hot water and dunks a tea bag in that, dipping it in and out until he can smell the peppermint in the air and the water becomes infused with the tea leaves.

He then carefully walks down with the mug, because he has spilt tea on himself before and it was not nice. He stands next to the couch and gently shakes Hermione, who in his absence has once again slumped downwards.

"Peppermint tea," he says before handing her the mug and sitting down next to her. She looks at him in surprise but accepts the mug and takes a sip of the Peppermint flavoured tea. The look of relief on her face is instant. Hot teas do stomach cramps good though he's not sure what the Peppermint is for. Maybe it just makes the tea taste nicer.

"Oh and I brought you some dinner too. Maybe after dinner you can take an Astrid to ease the pain." He says carefully, not sure why. Maybe he just doesn't want to spoil this one moment where he's the one offering comfort and solace and you know, being _that_ guy.

Her face lights up with a smile and she mumbles her thanks and leans against his shoulder, sipping her tea and staring into the fireplace. It's nice and warm and her head against his shoulder brings the scent of sunshine and cherries wafting up to his nose. He inhales it and feels much better, his shoulders instantly relaxing and a lazy smile making its way across his face. Her weight is warm and soft against him and he feels drowsy and happy. He wonders how she's feeling now.

"By the way, it's Aspirin. Not Astrid." She says her voice sounding muffled against his sweater. There's his answer.

"I know." He smiles and rests his cheeks against her hair.

Everything feels alright again.

* * *

Because I was hunting for lemon tea in the grocery store aisle and thinking about Ron/Hermione. Is set sometime during the fifth book. :)


End file.
